Vol. 471 No. 2
18 Mr. M. McDowell asked the Minister for Health whether the attention of his Department has been drawn to a practice whereby non-resident mothers are admitted to Irish maternity hospitals for the delivery of their babies, which births thereby entitle them to Irish passports; the number of such births which have been recorded in each of the past three years; the cost to the State of such health services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20470/96]
Limerick East): From the official statistics on birth registration compiled by the Central Statistics Office, it is not possible to identify non-residents. However, figures from the perinatal reporting system include a category of “other” for mothers resident outside the State. Births to Irish citizens resident outside the State, births to residents of Northern Ireland as well as other non-resident births are included under this heading. It is therefore not possible to examine citizenship issues from this data. In any event, figures from the most recent available year, 1992, indicate that less than 0.06 per cent of births fall into the non-resident category.
